LOS ANGELES, CA.- This June, the Hammer premieres a new work by New York based video artist and classicallytrained musician Aïda Ruilova. In her expressive and rhythmic films and videos, Ruilova deftly manipulates sound and expression and her fascination with horror movies always hovers near the surface. Her more recent longer works take her gothic, B-movie style further with short narratives that are never fully resolved and always leave us wanting more.

For her Hammer Projects exhibition in the Video Gallery, Ruilova has produced a new video that she has been working on since August 2008, when she became an artist-in-residence at the Museum. For the film, she has researched the darker side of Los Angeles history and architectural landmarks including the Bradbury building, the Hollyhock House, and cemeteries. The project was shot on digital film and video on a sound stage in Silver Lake, in a bedroom set and foggy abyss, both designed by the artist. Featuring infamous actress Karen Black alongside artist Raymond Pettibon, Meet the Eye explores ideas of perception, seeing, and looking. The main character, played by Black, is a sexy, foul-mouthed vamp who verbally questions her existence as her shy lover, played by Pettibon, finds power through guiding her vision.

Aïda Ruilova was born in 1974 in Wheeling, West Virginia. She received her BFA from the University of South Florida, Tampa, Fl in 1999 and her MFA from the School of Visual Arts, New York, in 2001. Ruilova’s first museum survey exhibition, The Singles, organized by the Aspen Art Museum and the Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis, has traveled to the Walter Phillips Gallery, Banff, and continues at the Contemporary Art Center New Orleans and Museum of Contemporary Art, Cleveland. She has had solo exhibitions at the Kitchen, New York (2007) and she has been included in group exhibitions at The Museum of Modern Art (2008), Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago (2007), Kunstverein Frankfurt (2007), and participated in the 4th Berlin Biennial (2006) and the 2004 Whitney Biennial.